> conquistadors were largely illiterate, and they were facing bureaucratic, administrative imperial states that ran on record keeping That seems like a weird (

> conquistadors were largely illiterate, and they were facing bureaucratic, administrative imperial states that ran on record keeping That seems like a weird (pointless?) thing to say when a lot of what we know about the conquest comes from letters Cortez constantly sent to Charles V to inform him on his progress. Yes, some Conquistadors were illiterate, so what? > how different were the two empires in terms of literacy? Massively. Usage on of writing for bookkeeping specifically (though pretty much everything else as well) in Europe by 1500 was on a whole other level. It’s not even comparable. Are you really saying there was hardly any difference between quipu/etc. and double entry bookkeeping? Based on what we know bureaucratically/administratively European states were much more complex at the time than the Aztec empire (which was more like a hegemonic confederation, possibly because they did not have the administrative capacity to administer the areas they subjugated directly). > Tenochtitlan had over 100,000 inhabitants, universal primary education (for both boys and girls, even!), running water, and public amenities like zoos and history museums; Rome and Constantinople had most of those things too. Doesn’t mean that Spain ~1500 AD wasn’t more advanced technologically than Rome in ~100 AD in almost every way. Also what are your sources on on universal education? And I don’t really think that most houses had direct access to running water (and many Medieval cities, albeit usually on a much smaller scale had functioning water distribution systems*, e.g Barcelona still had a functioning systems from the Roman period). Bronze and pre-Bronze ages civilizations in the old world also had very complex societies, large cities (and from what we can tell) more advanced writing systems. The most advanced American civilizations were overall about on the same (or slightly below) level technologically. So yeah in that sense they were about 3000-4000 years behind the Spanish and other Europeans. * https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2023/07/29/list-of-medieval-towns-villages-cities-with-water-supply-systems/ https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2023/07/29/list-of-medieval-to...